26. Roman
ROMAN
I have everything set up, and I’m wearing the long black robe over my dark trousers and long-sleeved top. Malachi is getting ready, and Cain is bringing Ophelia.
I check the time. It’s almost quarter to three. They need to be here soon. It’s important we get started on time.
The door to the tower opens, and I turn from where I’m preparing the herbs. Cain enters, but my gaze is immediately drawn to the girl behind him.
For the love of the gods. She has been sent to test me; I am sure of it now.
She walks into the room, her hair a curtain of almost-white blonde.
Her dress is loose, but it clearly shows her body underneath.
It’s a sheer cotton material, and the candles around her highlight the slip underneath, and her lack of much other underwear.
Her nipples press against the fabric, hard and demanding.
I want to go over to her and lift her onto my knee as I fasten my lips over them and suck hard through the fabric.
She’s got small breasts, a handful at most, but her nipples are pointed, and I ache to taste them.
Her slender hips and long legs catch my attention next, with the shadow between her thighs promising so much.
She had said she doesn’t shave her pussy.
Is it as blonde as the hair on her head?
I’m desperate to find out, even though that goes against everything I’ve promised myself.
She turns to look at Cain, and I stifle a groan.
She’s wearing a thong, and I can see each perfect, taut ass cheek under her dress and slip.
Does she know how revealing her outfit is, backlit by this lighting?
Is this something she’s done on purpose? I doubt it, knowing how innocent she is.
I turn away from her. I won’t touch her I swear to myself.
When I look back briefly, Cain is staring at her in a way that makes me worry he doesn’t have the same level of self-control that I hold.
There’s an undercurrent of male desire filling the air with testosterone and need.
I think something is going to break tonight.
I clear my throat, trying to dispel the tension. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?” I ask her.
She drops her purse on the end of the couch, then holds her chin high and nods. “I’m ready.”
“And you?” I check with Cain.
He pulls out his black, hooded mask from his back pocket and slips it over his face. He must have taken it from the altar room already. I have mine on the counter, beside the concoction of herbs and smudge stick I made earlier. I put my mask on, too, transforming myself into the skeleton.
The door at the rear of the space opens, and Malachi steps out, his face covered with the smooth, white mask of his choice. It goes against the black of everything he normally wears.
Ophelia’s dual-colored eyes widen. “Wh-why do you wear them?”
“Mainly for protection,” I tell her. “Sometimes we are dealing with unseen forces and spirits, and the masks help to disguise our identity. But they also help us become more than ourselves, which helps us to channel otherworldly energies.”
Malachi snorts laughter. “And sometimes we just wear them to fuck around with people.”
“Not now, though,” I say sharply. “This isn’t a game.”
No, it isn’t. It’s deadly serious. Ophelia is trembling, and I have to hold myself back from telling her to get on her knees. That’s how I want her, head bent, submissive.
My cock jerks, and I clench my teeth, trying to dispel the image. I need to be stronger than that. Restrained. The other two aren’t wearing their robes tonight. They would get in the way, but I still have mine on, and I’m grateful for it hiding just how aroused I am.
“Come here,” I tell her, putting out my hand. She places her tiny one into mine, and I lead her to the middle of the room. “You need to stay in this spot. Don’t move. No matter what happens, you can’t run away in the middle of the ritual, or it could make things worse.”
She gives a brave smile. “I’m not sure how they could be worse.”
I lift an eyebrow, though she can’t see it. “Is that something you really want to test?”
She shakes her head. No.
“Did you bring what I asked?”
She reaches into the pocket of her dress and pulls out a small baggie filled with fine, blonde curls. I take them from her and resist the urge to open it and bring it to my nose to inhale her scent.
“Tell me, when do you hear his voice the loudest?”
She worries at her lower lip with her teeth, and her cheeks pinken. “When I have sinful thoughts.”
“What kind of sinful thoughts?”
She swallows and keeps her gaze averted. “When I think about sex. When I think about pleasuring myself, or…or having someone else pleasure me.”
I can’t help my gaze flicking down to her nipples.
I’m sure they’ve hardened even more beneath her dress.
I deliberately don’t look at the other two Preachers.
I bet we’re all equally hard, hearing her speak like this.
She’s so fucking innocent, it makes me want to do bad things to her, but giving in to that urge will only make me as bad as the man who hurt me when I was the innocent one.
I position four tall pillar candles around her, each one representing a different element and cardinal direction. North for earth. East for air. South for fire, and West for water.
“Close your eyes and focus on my words.”
She does immediately, and I love how willing she is. Her obedience is as delicious as her submission, and it makes for a dangerous mix with the three of us.
Malachi and Cain step in, Malachi behind her, and Cain in front, sheltering her. I walk in a circle around them, lighting the candles as I go.
“I call upon the sacred fire to light this space and all within it.” When all of the candles are lit, I pick up a bowl of salt that was placed near the north candle. I sprinkle it in a circle around them. “Spirits of Earth, I call you, strengthen this ground beneath us, and grant us your power.”
I pick up the smudge stick I’d made before they’d arrived and use one of the candles to light the end. “Through air and smoke, I banish all those presences who are unwelcome here tonight.” Then I address Ophelia. “Speak his name.”
She keeps her eyes closed, but whispers, “Isiah Abram.”
“Louder.”
“Isiah Abram,” she says again. “The Prophet.”
I continue, “We form this circle of protection around you, banishing the unwanted presences from your body, mind, and soul.”
Malachi and Cain move closer, their bodies brushing hers. They reach out and take each other’s arms, creating a barrier around her. They dwarf her, so she almost vanishes between them.
I pick up a bowl of cleansed water and move around them, dipping my fingers into it and flicking it at the three of them standing in the circle.
“Spirits of water, cleanse this soul of the one who has been tormenting her. Give her the freedom of unobserved thoughts. Allow her mind to be her own again.”
“And my body.” Her voice is a breathy whisper. “I need my body to be my own again, too.”
“Your body,” I echo, and take out the small bag of curls of hair. “Your body is your own, too.”
I take a pinch of the soft curls and drop them into the candleflames. They hiss and sputter, and Ophelia lets out a little cry, as though she feels the physical release.
“Ophelia,” Malachi says. “Your body is yours to feel pleasure and pain.”
He releases his hold on Cain’s arms to lift the bottom of his mask slightly, revealing his mouth. He hooks her hair away from her neck, allowing the soft strands to slide through his fingers, and places a kiss to her nape. She whimpers again, and he presses himself closer.
“See?” he says. “You can do as you wish, and you deserve to feel pleasure, too.”
We never do this. Ceremonies don’t go this way, and I had no idea things would take this turn. I’m not happy about it. We made vows, all of us, and this is as close as we’ve ever gotten to breaking them. But Ophelia is swaying as if she’s in ecstasy, and I can’t bring myself to rebuke Malachi.
Furthermore, Cain is watching hungrily, his body as tense as taut wire.
All that testosterone I could practically smell earlier has ramped up even more.
Cain and Malachi are both powerful men who fight well, and I don’t think they’d let anyone get in their way now.
Even if I wanted to stop this, I’m not sure I could.
“Pleasure, yes,” Ophelia replies huskily.
Cain runs his hands down her arms, then brushes them across her breasts to thumb her nipples through the material of her dress. I watch with painful hunger. But still, I don’t move.
“Is this okay?” he asks her.
She nods. “Yes.” She takes a snatch of breath as he pinches them. “Oh, yes.”
I’m hypnotized by what’s happening. This was never a part of the cleansing ritual, never what I wanted for tonight, but now it’s begun, and I’m powerless to make it stop.
Ophelia looks like something magical, dressed in white, standing between the two masked men, with candles lit all around them.
Her eyes are still closed, and her perfect lips are parted, her head tilted back as Malachi kisses her neck.
I watch them press her between them and know their cocks are hard and rubbing against her.
I know it because that’s what I’d be doing if I were in their position.
No , I shake my head at myself. That isn’t what I’m about. Sex makes us weak. Except right now, it seems like they’re empowering her, and each other.
But that isn’t my place in this. At least one of us must keep a sane head. I won’t break my vows, so I take a step back and observe.